Holding The Line Guide Service

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Month: March 2010

I fished a half day morning trip on Stillhouse today with Keith L. of Georgetown, his son, Matt, and grandsons, Luke and Andrew, of Ohio. The forecast for today had me concerned as far back as Sunday when cloudless skies were predicted. Keith put it best … we had “severely bright” skies, and, as often happens under such conditions, we had a short, quick, low-light bite right in the early morning and then the fishing went flat on us.

Andrew and Luke worked hard and hung right in there to the closing bell on this day made tough with very bright conditions

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:30a

Air Temp: 56F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~60.4 to 60.8F.

Wind: Winds were just rippling the surface from the S. at sunrise and for about 40 minutes beyond, then slowly build up to around 13 mph by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were clear and bright.

We started our day at Area 116 flatlining with Rip Shads. We put 7 fish in the boat in the first 90 minutes of the day. 6 of them came off this area (4 whites and 2 largemouth).

When things got quiet, we moved on to Area 888 and continued flatlining, adding one additional largemouth to the mix. The boys did really well. They got the baits out behind the boat the appropriate distance, kept an eye on their rods constantly, reacted quickly when we hooked up with fish, kept their rods up at a 45 degree angle when fighting, and they were rewarded for their good technique as we only lost one hooked fish as it head-shook on the surface.

From this point in time, around 9:45a and on, things got really tough. There were no birds, no bait on top, no rough fish surfacing, just nothing much going on at all in nature.

We made a number of stops and quickly vertical jigged at each one hoping to entice a school of white bass to perk up, but that wasn’t to be.

We managed a single crappie at Area 127, a crappie and a white bass at Area 604, and a white bass at Area 599 and that was it. After a 50+ fish trip for the boys on last year’s Spring Break trip from Ohio, this one was a bit tough, but, knowing that 50+ fish days can happen is what keeps you heading back out there after ’em!

I fished a half day morning trip on Belton today with a neat mother-daugther pair — Myra and Kim C. &nbsp &nbsp Kim was my kind of fisherman! In true Aggie form, she brought her spiral notebook, came with a mess of questions, asked for clarification if she didn’t understand a tactic I was trying to explain — bottom line, she was there to learn so she could be more successful on her next trip out on her family’s boat. And Myra was just so excitable … she really enjoyed catching every fish that took her bait.

Our trip was originally schedule for Monday, but, as I often do when schedules allow, I asked Myra and Kim to reconsider for Tuesday as the wind and sky conditions were much more favorable (strong S. wind and some high clouds vs. light N. winds and clear conditions). They were able to flex, and it paid off well for them.

Kim’s hybrid added a bit of quality to the quantity of whites we slabbed up today fishing the windblown shoreline.

Don’t let the blue jeans fool you — all 4 thumbs in those fishes’ mouths are manicured, polished, and clear-coated!! The girls did great today!!

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 12:40p

Air Temp: 54F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~58.4F.

Wind: Winds were already pushing from the S at 10 at sunrise, and increased slowly up to 18mph from the S. by 10am, and then leveled off.

Skies: Skies were fair.

We started our day at Area 099 mainly giving the girls an introduction to verical jigging and waiting to see if any action would develop. We didn’t catch any fish here, as it only took about 10 minutes beyond sunrise for some bird action to kick in.

We found very actively feeding birds over top of fish that were occasionally breaking the surface in pursuit of shad at Area 608. The fish were moving very quickly, and were up in the top 5-8 feet of the water column. I didn’t realize this at first, and wondered why all the bird action with nothing showing on bottom and nothing touching our slabs (fished on bottom). I backed off on the sensitivity on my sonar to reduce surface clutter, and there they were. So, we altered our presentation to get our baits just under the surface and began to slowly but surely put fish in the boat. At first we tried smoking, but we weren’t passing over enough fish to have this pay off well, so I set our flatlines with Rip Shads and a single downrigger with a White Willow spoon, and fished them all up high. After about 50 minutes of effort in this area, we’d bagged 13 fish, all decent ~12 inch white bass. By then the birds were beginning to light on the surface and the shallow bite was drying up quickly.

We headed over to Area 132 and picked up 2 whites.

We saw a brief resurgence in the bird action on the N. side of Area 028 and fished that to no avail.

We then headed to Area 579 to search a bit deeper and were immediately rewarded for that call. I spotted abundant schooled white bass holding on and just above bottom in ~30 of water. We let slabs down and up came the white bass, over and over again for about 90 minutes straight. The girls put 56 whites in the boat as well as a single 19″ 3.5 pound hybrid. Only 8 or 10 of these whites were short, with the remainder going just shy of 12 inches. All were healthy and had not yet spawned. Every one came on the 3/8 oz. TNT 180 slab. It was right on for imitating the forage size of the threadfin shad today.

By 12:10 or so, things were slowing to a crawl and by 12:30 the fish were done altogether.

We headed back in, snapped a few photos and released the few that we’d boxed for pictures.

I fished a short, solo evening trip tonight to try to stay in touch with fish & bait movements and contacted fish at 3 locations.

Start Time: 5:30p

End Time: 8:00p

Air Temp: 74F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~62.4F.

Wind: Winds were light from the SE at ~8.

Skies: Skies were fair.

I fished Area 888 and found fish in 12-13 feet on the shoulder of the submerged E. bank here. Fish were aggressive as I arrived, but then cooled off quickly. I boated 13 fish, all solid whites at ~13 inches, all on the slab, and all via an easing technique.

When things died down here, I moved to Area 100 and found fish here for the first time this year (much later than usual). The fish were tight to bottom, but hit readily, and numerous schoolmates would follow hooked fish up ~7-8 off bottom. I picked up 11 fish here with the action dying right at sunset.

I moved over to Area 116 and trolled a flatlined Rip Shad 200 one pass, yielding a single white bass and a single barely legal largemouth. By last seeing light I was headed back in.

Today I fished a SKIFF trip (a free trip for kids of deployed soldiers) with Nadia and Isabella Meyer of Belton. The girls’ mom is deployed, so dad got to come along on this trip and I really appreciated his willingness to assist and make the girls successful.

Wind: Winds were S at 5-6 at sunrise, slowly building up to 17 and slowly turning through W to NW as it did.

Skies: Skies were fair all day.

The details of the girls’ trip is captured below in a copy of my letter to my sponsors in this effort, the Austin Fly Fishers, whose fundraising efforts allow these SKIFF trips to happen.

As the easy morning fishing drew to a close and we ended our SKIFF trip, I pressed on in an effort to pin down some additional fish/bait locations for upcoming trips on Belton.

I found a significant, albeit now sluggish concentration of fish at Area 181 in ~30 feet of water. Over 70 minutes’ time I boated 24 additional fish including a crappie, 2 largemouth, 8 juvenile hybrid, and 13 white bass, of which only 3 were legal size. These fish hit my slab when presented with and “easing” technique. Although most of these fish were smallish, all the variables were in place here to see continued success until our next big change in weather.

Dear Ron and the AFF,

SKIFF Trip 2010 #2 launched today on Belton Lake at 7:15am. Aboard were 9 year old Nadia Meyer and 6 year old Isabella Meyer. Both Mr. and Mrs. Meyer are Master Sergeants on active duty, and both have gone through multiple Iraqi deployments. Currently, Mrs. Meyer (Jovana) is serving at Camp Taji, Iraq, with the 4-227 Combat Aviation Brigade. She’ll return to the States in April or May. For today’s trip I was glad to have the help of Mr. Phil Meyer who serves with the 4th Infantry Division as an Air Traffic Controller. He attended as both a chaperone and a very interested student of the art of angling.

We began our trip with the standard safety briefing and then went over the basics on using spinning gear, and particularly using that gear for vertical jigging. We shoved off just as the sun was rising. Today’s weather was clear and mild, so the skies brightened quickly. We encountered our first success at the first area we searched with sonar, in the vicinity of Area 099, and between it and the shore. In 15-17 feet over a clean bottom, we found loosely schooled white bass holding tight to the bottom, and feeding on abundant threadfin shad approximately 1.25 inches in length (we knew this because we saw “cripples” at the surface and had fish regurgitate their breakfast a few times). The girls were both really sharp — once I explained and showed them something one time, they were able to do it correctly thereafter. So, they experienced early success due to great technique in keeping their lures correctly adjusted in relative to the bottom. In less than 40 minutes we boated 11 fish including 10 white bass and a drum.

I kept a constant eye out for any bird activity, and eventually spotted some solid action between Areas 132 and 607 (BA: 12T). At this particular area the water depth changes quickly from 8 to over 25 feet, and we found fish at all depths in this area. We jigged vertically for the deeper fish and fished “lift-drop” style for the shallower fish. It was via this lift-drop tactic that little Isabella hooked up with our big fish for the trip, a 2 1/8 pound largemouth bass, and brought it successfully to net unassisted. Nadia also landed a smaller, barely keeper-sized largemouth and a white bass this way, as well.

By 9:45 we’d seen the strongest action of the day come and go — pretty typical for clear weather. We fished about an hour longer and continued catching suspended white bass on flatlined Rip Shads in this same area. We also gave downrigging a try very briefly mainly to show Phil how this technique worked. We managed on final white bass on the ‘rigger right on Area 606. With the skies bright, the fish and birds settled, and a full afternoon of sports events ahead for the girls, Phil and I agreed that this would be a good time to end a great trip so they could head home for lunch and a nap.

Our tally was 37 fish, all caught and released, with Isabella’s lunker bass anchoring the haul.

I fished a half-day evening trip with Bill and Bonnie S. of Salado. Back in the Fall, the Salado Education Foundation asked me to donate a trip to their annual Cattlemen’s Ball fundraiser. Bill and Bonnie were high-bidders and cashed in their certificate today!

Fishing continues to improve and move shallower. We landed 33 fish on this trip and only one was taken in water greater than 15 feet.

Bonnie holds the largest of our 33 fish taken this evening, a 3.25 pound largemouth

Bill and Bonnie show the best 4 of our haul of white bass

Start Time: 3:00p

End Time: 7:50p

Air Temp: 67F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~62F.

Wind: Winds were slack at trip’s start, then picked up out of the SE at a light 6-7 mph.

Skies: Skies were partly cloudy at ~20%.

Things started out slow as expected on a calm, bright afternoon, but slowly ramped up to a peak about 45 minutes before sunset. We caught a single, small white bass off of Area 34 on a slab, and zeroed at Area 603/604.

We then started picking up fish around Area 116 on a flatline rigged up with 3 Rip Shads and a single Bomber and boated 21 fish over about an hour’s time from around 5:40 to 6:40. This action started to wane a bit earlier than usual here, but, as this was winding down, I spotted some action at Area 605 (BA: 6T).

We found fish up shallow, between 3 and 11 feet, and feeding aggressively. We cast Cicadas and fished them lift-drop style and boated 11 additional fish at this location in the last 30 minutes of the trip. These fish included a mix of largemouth and white bass. Bonnie caught the largest fish of the trip — a nice 3.25 pound largemouth — in this area. We found fish adjacent to this shallow area along the face of a steep break here down into 27 feet of water, however, the fish were all in the top 9-11 feet of the water column, so I had Bill and Bonnie let their lures down to bottom and crank up through these fish. That short-lived bit of action landed us the largest of our largemouth and one other white bass. By dark the action was done and we were headed back in.

I fished a full day trip with Mr. Paul L. and his son, Alex, of Belton, TX, today. Paul works with computers at McClane’s in Temple, and Alex is finishing up his junior year at Belton High and will be getting right to work on applying for colleges (right, Alex?!?).

Our conditions were just right for a very productive day of fishing — a stiff southerly breeze, grey cloud cover, air and water temps both in the 60’s, and pre-frontal conditions provided by an approaching cold front due to hit overnight.

When all was said and done we’d put together the year’s most productive trip thus far, and had boated the year’s largest fish thus far — an 8.25 pound flathead (yellow) catfish that struck a jigged slab.

Paul L. with an 8 1/4 pound flathead catfish taken on a TNT 180 slab in 21 feet of water.

Alex and Paul with a post-sunset shot representing the mixed bag angling that we encountered over most of the day today.

Start Time: 7:20a

End Time: 7:45p

Air Temp: 53F at trip’s start

Water Surface Temp: 60-61F

Wind: Winds started at S. 6 and ramped up to S. 20+ by 2:00p, then tapered back to S. 12-15 in the evening..

Skies: Skies were light grey until around noon, then cleared to fair and partly cloudy until around 3:30p, then went mostly cloudy through sunset.

NOTE: I received a report from Jeff W. that he’d found white bass north of Area 256.

It’d be a bit monotonous to list every last thing we did in a 12 hour trip, so, briefly put, here’s what happened today:

From sunrise up until 10:05a, we enjoyed the presence of birds, both gulls and terns, to help us stay on top of active fish. This lead us to success by way of flatlining at Area 116 to Area 407. This also lead us to success by way of slabbing in 23-26 feet of water in the vicinity of Area 373 over to Area 598, and the birds pointed the way to fish we caught by flatlining in the area bounded by Areas 598, 102, and 373. This last scenario was one I rarely encounter. Birds were very frisky, but we could find very little on sonar. As it turned out, the fish push shad up to the birds were suspended less than 12 feet below the surface, and, there were more largemouth bass in this mix than there were white bass. I had to adjust my sonar setting to eliminate the usual surface clutter that fills the top of the screen on windy days in order to see these fish clearly, and then we had to select lures that would access them. By far the best producer was the Rip Shad with a 9-10 foot dive range, followed by the Bomber (it went a bit too deep) and in a distant third place came the downrigged White Willow. I eventually yanked the the downrigger out of the mix as it was more technical than the situation required.

By 10:05 all birds were gone and we had a bit of a lull. By now we’d boated 36 fish.

After about 45 minutes of continuing to slowly milk largemouth out of the surface layer, we hit Area 89 (BA:6T) and found aggressive, schooled white bass here tight to the bottom in 19-23 feet of water. We used slab presented by way of jigging, easing, and fished lift-drop style and really wore these fish out for right at one hour. During this time we caught 51 fish including just a few largemouth with the balance being white bass of all sizes. As the sun broke through strongly for the first time all day, these fish turned off quickly. We anchored (due to the increasing S. wind now at 20mph)and put out live baits as we downed some lunch. We only managed one crappie in about a 45 minute span as we ate, and then decided to move on.

Alex picked up on short bass at Area 604. We then hit Area 599/600 and picked up several whites and 3 drum. We eased north and hit Area 545 for several more white bass and our big fish of the trip, an 8.25 pound flathead!

By now it was 3:15, and we hit a dry spell until around 4:30 when, at Area 352 we consistently began to pick up white bass on a flatline. The small area that each of these whites came from made it clear these fish were congregated tightly, so, we switched over to jigging and brought our fish count up to 121 by the time the action here was dying off. The fish here were very aggressive at first, and responded to a smoking retrieve, then had to be jigged, then had to be jigged tediously, then we finished by lift-dropping. We caught large fish at first, and ended with catching numerous very small (6 to 8 inch) fish.

We ended our day where it began, flatlining at Area 116 to 407, adding 10 final fish to the count including 8 white bass and 2 just-legal largemouth.

It was interesting to note that the 3 longest white bass we landed today (all over 14″) were very lean, and had the appearance of being “spawned out”.

I fished a half-day morning trip this morning with Doc, Raleigh, and Ruffin W., all of the Temple/Belton area. Despite less than ideal weather conditions, the water is now sufficiently warm to trump some of the negative impacts that clear, bright skies and north winds tend to cause. We got on fish right away and the fishing stayed consistent for the first 3 hours of daylight.

As we got on the water we headed out and searched the Area 54 complex and over to Area 116 (BA:8HG,6T,2L). Sonar revealed scattered white bass up as shallow as 8 feet, and out to 18 feet of water, and the fish were also scattered vertically from mid-depth to bottom. We flatlined with Bombers and Rip Shads and connected regularly on whites and largemouth, including one black bass that went exactly 3 pounds.

As we fished and observed, we saw some action up in shallow water to the NNW of Area 116 (BA:7T). I threw a test cast out with a TNT 180 and immediately hooked up using a lift-drop approach. I coached all three fellows do the same and soon all 3 had hooked fish this way, albeit for just a brief time. The fish were acting a bit unusually today in that they would be active in short spurts, and in scattered wolfpacks of what sonar revealed to be just 4-10 fish in number.

After this shallow (11-13 foot) bit of action settled, the wind just about died, and the fish activity decreased right along with it. We slowed our approach, as well, doing controlled drifts with bait. This netted us 2 crappie and several more missed fish.

As Raleigh was a bit pressed for time, we decided to give flatlining another try as the wind began to pick up again before we needed to pack it in and get him headed back to work. We fished directly over Area 116 and in the last 10-20 minutes on the water picked up 3 more solid white bass and missed another. We finished up the trip with 21 fish which was a pretty good take for a bright, clear, and nearly windless day with what little wind there was coming from the north. We snapped a couple dockside photos and released our catch in good condition.

I really enjoyed this trip, as I do most “multi-generational” trips. Both Ruffin’s father and grandfather were focused on his learning and his success and handed off most every hooked fish to him so he could gain experience and have a positive impression of the sport.

I fished a half day morning trip with Jamie S. and her friend’s son, Nate, visiting from Oklahoma. Jamie is a teacher with KISD, and Nate is 5 years old. His previous best fishing trip resulted in the capture of 17 “perch”. We fished hard to get 18 fish on this trip so we could make this his “new best” trip — and we did it!

Jamie and Nate worked through some tough, calm wind conditions to boat a nice mixed bag of 18 fish this Spring Break morning.

Start Time: 7:20a

End Time: 11:35am

Air Temp: 50F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~60.4F

Wind: Winds were light from the NE at ~3-4.

Skies: Skies were bright and clear.

This morning we pushed off at around 7:45a in the face of clear skies and a light NE breeze — very tough.

We were able to find some tentative schooled white bass up shallow in ~14 feet of water at Area 314 and boated 6 fish there before that quickly shut down with the increasing light level. We tried to allow Nate to do as much by himself as his abilities allowed, and he did pretty well at each technique I threw his way.

Next, we moved out a bit deeper and worked from Area 109 to Area 571 with a flatline and downrigger. We picked up an additional 5 fish this way until these fish also quit or scattered on us.

We looked over several areas without seeing anything worth getting excited about on sonar, and wound up returning to the vicinity of Area 571 to drift bait which yielded our final 7 fish, all in 18-22 feet here.

We wrapped up our trip as fish #18 — a nice crappie — came over the side, thus beating Nate’s old record.

I fished a family trip this afternoon with my brother, Andy, and my nephew and neice, Trent and Molly, all new arrivals in the Austin area. We got on the water around 3pm facing tough conditions, including clear skies, bright sun, and light NNE wind. We started out looking in deep water at mid-lake, but saw no birds, no bait, no nothing.

Andy holds the largest of our white bass landed today.

Andy, Molly, and Trent all pitched in for good results under tough conditions.

Start Time: 3:00pm

End Time: 7:45pm

Start Temp: 71F

Water Surface Temp: 60F

Winds: Light from the NNE at 6, shifting ESE and then dying to near calm, and picking up at SE at 7 with increasing clouds near sunset

Skies: Skies were clear and cloudless until near sunset, when skies began to cloud, working toward a totally cloud covered sky by the following morning

We took a close look at things at Area 601, saw a few fish on bottom, and stopped to jig, but managed only one small white bass here.

We moved on to Area 603/604 and found fish both on top of the feature here, as well as off to the side in as little as 15 feet of water, and down to 24 feet of water. We vertical jigged for a mixed bag of solid white bass and barely-keeper whites and bagged a total of 33 fish here for the effort. Fish were also found on the sloping bottom just yards to the north of this feature.

We experienced a very sudden wind shift as we fished here, turning out of the ESE at just 8-9 mph for about 20 minutes, and then going slack. The fishing took a nosedive at that point, and we then struggled until about 45 minutes prior to sunset. During this slow time, we drifted with live bait near Area 54, but came up with only a pair of crappie for the effort.

Around 6:45pm, we headed to Area 352 and picked up one largemouth and 2 white bass here on a flatline. I didn’t see much in the way of bait or fish on sonar here so we dropped back to Area 116/407 and ran 4 flatlines, keeping the Bombers on the deep side and the Rip Shads on the shallow. This turned out to be a solid combination as we boated fish for 30 minutes straight and all points along this circuit.

We ended the day with 67 fish boated. Our success was enhanced by the fact that Andy, Trent, and Molly have all fished with me before and all have the “hang” of vertical jigging down pat. This allowed us to maximize the potential we had for landing fish at Area 603/4 and put a lot of fish in the boat even when conditions were difficult.

FACT: Fish do bite in the rain. Now, ask how I know this. Well, that’s because Grandma Joyce W., and her grandson’s — 1st Grader Nate and 4th Grader C.J., and I fished for 4 straight hours in everything ranging from a mist to a downpour, and we caught fish from start to finish despite the damp conditions.

Joyce returned with the boys after first coming out with me last Spring Break. They drove down overnight from the Dallas area and would not be deterred by a little precipitation. And they were rewarded for their persistence.

Wind: Winds started light from the NNE and then increased to around 10, then slowly tapered off to calm by trip’s end.

Skies: Skies were leaden grey with rain all day.

As we headed out, we made a brief stop at Area 599/600. I marked fish at 20-25 feet, stopped to jig over them and landed one white in short order, but I could tell these fish were going to require more technique than the boys could offer.

We continued looking and found some solid action in 15 to 22 feet of water stretching from Area 109 north to Area 595, with the best action occurring at Area 602 (BA: 14T,8HG,3L). We fished these fish every way we could depending on their fluctuating activity levels. We jigged, smoked, threw blades, downrigged, and drifted bait. In the end, jigging for very active fish, and drifting bait for them when they slowed down turned out to be the most productive combination.

By 10:45, we’d boated exactly 35 fish and it was clear that the action was waning. Little Nate was cold and wet and reminded us all of this fact approximately every 45 seconds 😉

C.J., on the other hand, could have hung with me well into nightfall. We compromised and decided we’d give it another 45 minutes and set a goal of landing 10 fish in that time which would require that everyone pitch in. For Nate, that meant manning the scoop and clearing our deck of rainwater. For the rest of us, it meant keeping lines baited and adjusted while also working our jigging rods. By 11:30, we’d boated an additional 5 fish, including C.J.’s jumbo white bass. We called it a good day at that point and headed home with 40 fish bagged including 4 largemouth, 2 crappie, and 34 white bass.